Ornamental compound sheet material



P 1938. B. E. M. MILLER 2,130,359

ORNAMENTAL COMPOUND SHEET MATERIAL Filed March 3, 1936 INVENTO/P BEN. Mlufi g w ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 20, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ORNAMENTAL COMPOUND SHEET MATERIAL Application March 3,

1936, Serial No. 66,862

In Great Britain March 30, 1935 6 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in ornamental compound sheet materials, and more particularly to materials wherein a fabric is surfaced with a transparent or translucent foil or the like.

According to the present invention laminated materials exhibiting very desirable imitation pearl or other pattern effects are obtained by backing a transparent or translucent foil or similar material with a pattern pile fabric. For most purposes the foil or the like should be caused to adhere to the pile fabric, e. g. by means of a suitable adhesive, though in some cases, e. g. in the case of wall panels, the pile may be merely pressed up to and held against the foil or the 3 like.

The term foil when employed hereinafter in the present specification is to be understood to include films and similar materials, while the term transparent is tobe understood to include translucent.

By means of the present invention laminated materials may be obtained which exhibit motherof-pearl effects, such as have hitherto been obtainable only by a complicated and expensive 5 process involving the incorporation of effect materials in the compositions from which the sheet materials were produced. The materials obtained according to the present invention are very suitable for use, for example, in lamp shades and 0 for the decoration of drums and other musical instruments. Materials wherein the foil has a basis of cellulose acetate or other relatively waterresistant substance are also very suitable for uses wherein resistance to washing or to humid condi-' .3 tions is desirable, as, for example, for table tops and as wall decorations in bathrooms.

The foil, which may be colourless or coloured and may be embossed, may have a basis of regenerated cellulose or nitrocellulose or a noncellulosic transparent substance, but materials having a basis of an organic derivative of cellulose, for example cellulose propionate, cellulose butyrate, cellulose nitro-acetate, methyl, ethyl and butyl celluloses, and particularly cellulose .5 acetate, have been found to be especially valuable. Such materials, especially if they have a high content of substituent groups, e. g., in the case of cellulose acetate, corresponding to an acetyl content of 56-58% or more, are relatively mois- 50 ture-resistant, which, as has been pointed out, is of considerable value for certain purposes. Moreover adhesion between such materials and pile fabrics having pile yarns of a cellulose derivative, which yield particularly valuable efiects,

i5 is very easily effected.

The pile fabric may be made of any suitable material, e. g. regenerated cellulose artificial silk or natural silk, but preferably fabrics are employcd wherein the pile is made of cellulose acetate or other organic derivative of cellulose. The pile and the base of the fabric may both be of the same substance or they may be different, for example the pile may be made of cellulose acetate yarn and the base of the fabric of cotton or linen yarn. Pile fabrics of this nature having a cotton or linen backing are particularly valuable when it is desired to stick the laminated product to wood or other surfaces to which cellulose acetate yarn does not itself adhere very readily, since it is comparatively easy to effect adhesion between" cotton or linen material and most other substances.

The pattern eifect on the pile fabric may be due solely to colour efiects on a uniform pile, i. e. a pile which if undyed'would show no pattern, or the pattern may be due to local differences in the pile which would show even in an undyed pile, e. g. difierences in lustre, due, for example, to the presence of cellulose acetate yarns and regenerated cellulose yarns or of lustrous and delustred cellulose acetate yarns, differences in the lay of the yarns, as in a crushed pile fabric, or in the thickness of the pile, as in a locally carbonized pile fabric. The pattern effects may also be due to a combination of these causes. As examples of pile fabrics which may be employed may be mentioned embossed velvets, printed velvets and metallized velvets, while for special effects double-faced velvets may be employed, the foils being fixed to one or both of the velvet faces. Particularly attractive imitation pearl effects may be produced by the use of crushed velvet-s, either coloured or white, in which the pile yarns are laid in different directions in a more or less haphazard manner. Such fabrics may be produced by pressing cellulose acetate pile fabrics with suitable rollers in the presence of steam.

The ornamental sheet materials may also be obtained from pile fabrics which do not show a pattern, by pressing the foil on to the pile of the fabric in such a manner that the lay of the pile is deformed non-uniformly, thus giving a haphazard pattern effect. For example the pressure treatment with suitable rollers employed in the production of crushed pile effects may be applied to a pile fabric surfaced with a foil.

Adhesion between the, pile fabric and the foil may be effected by means of a suitable adhesive. When a cellulose acetate foil is caused to adhere to a pile fabric having a pile of cellulose acetate yarns, which is the preferred process according to the present invention, adhesion may be effected by means of heat alone, for example by placing the foil on the pile surface of the fabric and pressing the two constituents together in a suitable heated press or passing them between heated rollers, or the foil and/or the pile may be moistened with a suitable softening agent and the constituents may then be pressed together with or without the use of heat.

Suitable softening agents for cellulose acetate include acetone, triacetin, diacetone alcohol and dioxane. Preferably a mixture containing a volatile solvent and a relatively low boiling solvent is employed, e. g. a mixture of acetone and diacetone alcohol, which may also contain a small proportion, e. g. 2-4%, of cellulose acetate.

Example The following example illustrates the production of ornamental materials according to the present invention. One side of a cellulose acetate foil is sprayed with the following mixture:-

Percent by weight Cellulose acetat 2 Diacetin 1 Acetone." 22 Benzol 15 Alcohol 10 Diacetone alcohol mally, and Fig. 2 illustrates a portion of the compound sheet material on an enlarged scale. In the figures l is a cellulose acetate fall which is adhered to the cellulose acetate pile 2 of a pile fabric having a. cotton backing 3.

Having described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Ornamental compound sheet materials, which comprise a transparent foil stuck to the pile side of a crushed pile fabric.

2. Ornamental compound sheet materials which comprise a transparent foil having a basis of a cellulose derivative stuck to the pile side of a crushed pile fabric.

3. Ornamental compound sheet materials which comprise a transparent foil having a basis of a cellulose derivative stuck to the pile side of a crushed pile fabric in which the pile comprises yarns made of an organic derivative of cellulose.

4. Ornamental compound which comprise a transparent foil having a basis of cellulose acetate stuck to the pile side of a crushed pile fabric.

5. Ornamental compound sheet materials which comprise a transparent foil having a basis of cellulose acetate stuck to the pile side of a crushed pile fabric in which the pile comprises yarns made of cellulose acetate and the backing comprises yarns made of cotton.

6. Process for the production of ornamental compound sheet materials, which comprises effecting adhesion between a transparent foil having a basis of an organic derivative of cellulose and the pile face of a crushed pile fabric in which the pile comprises yarns of an organic derivative of cellulose, by softening said transparent foil and said pile yarns by means of an organic solvent for the organic derivative of cellulose and pressing the foil and the pile fabric together.

BRIAN EDWARD MERRJMAN MILLER.

sheet materials 

